South Asia News
Nepal hailed as regional example for women's rights
Jul 8, 2011, 8:01 GMT
Kathmandu - Nepal's legislation on domestic violence and gender equality in employment are a positive example for South Asia, a United Nations report said.
The report titled Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice, listed Nepal and Bhutan as the only countries in the five-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to explicitly criminalize marital rape.
Nepal was also one of three countries that list domestic violence as a category of crime, it said.
'Fundamental to women's access to justice is a legal and constitutional framework that guarantees women's rights,' said the report, released Thursday in New Delhi. 'As the example of Nepal shows, laws have the power to shape society by creating new norms and by bringing about social change.'
The report also commended Nepal's legal provision that guarantees women 33 per cent representation in the public sector.
It compared this ratio with India's national Parliament, which is 11 per cent female.
The countries in the South Asia association are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and the Maldives.
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